Jump To Recipe Save To Pinterest Print This Recipe

Halloween pasta with creepy edible eyeballs is the perfect savory Halloween dinner! It’s so easy to make that the kids can get involved, too!

Halloween pasta is a fun way to get the night started before devouring all the sugary treats! The idea came to me after ordering black pasta for Halloween. The kids would love it if I could figure out how to make edible eyeballs! About six hours and a lot of mozzarella cheese and black olives later, this simple, savory, and FUN dish was on the table!

The challenge was making a dish that was fun to serve and delicious. To keep the pasta completely black, you can’t add much to it. Tomatoes, parmesan, or pesto would all change the color, thus losing the desired effect. My kids and I grew up on buttered noodles, which are simple and perfect, but I wanted to jazz it up. So, while I was working on the eyeballs, I let some butter, olive oil, garlic, and seasoning hang out on the stove over low heat. This resulted in a flavorful butter and olive oil sauce for the pasta. I served parmesan on the side.

Pro tip: Use black pasta made with squid ink and NOT black beans. Black bean pasta turns gray and does not stay a true black color.

While the pasta is cooking, you’ve got a pocket of time to make the eyeballs, which are incredibly easy. The full instructions are below.

To serve, toss the pasta with the garlic butter, place the eyeballs where you want them, and serve with spooky props around the table. I got all of mine at the Dollar Tree! If you don’t have one near you, I found some inexpensive table decorations for you below!

Affordable Halloween Decorations

What do you need for Halloween pasta

Squid ink pasta order here
Butter
Garlic
Olive oil
Mini mozzarella balls (Ciliegine)
Black olives
Disposable straws order here

If you have a dietary restriction, use any pasta you want. You can easily make this gluten-free just by changing up the pasta. The edible eyeballs will still give it the spooky look for your Halloween table!

How to make Halloween pasta

1. In a large pot, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.
2. While the pasta is cooking, make your eyeballs.
3. Drain the cheese and the olives, and lay them on paper towels to absorb any excess moisture.
4. Cut each mozzarella ball and olive in half.
5. To make two eyeballs, you will need one mozzarella ball and half of the black olive.
6. Gently poke the straw into the cheese and twist it back and forth as you push it through.
7. For the olives, use the same technique – just be more gentle as they’re more fragile.
8. To assemble the eyeballs, press the olive piece into the hole you made in the cheese.
9. Continue this process until you’ve made as many eyeballs as you want.
10. To serve, drain the pasta, toss it with the garlic butter, and tuck the eyeballs into the noodles.

Tips for making edible eyeballs:

You’ll need four mozzarella balls and two black olives to make eight eyes. You’ll have a lot left over even if you buy the smallest package. If you mess up, don’t worry – you’ve got plenty to practice with!

The cheese is going to get stuck up in the straws, so I suggest using disposable straws for this. Cut each into three or four pieces to save on the number of straws. You don’t need one whole straw to make your holes.

I get two “pupils” out of each olive half, but I’ve also made tons of these. If it’s easier, just start with one per olive half. Gently twisting the straw through the olive will usually pop it out on the other side. If it gets stuck in the straw, use your fingernail or a toothpick to coax it out gently.

Once the mozzarella ball is cut in half, the rounded side will be sitting down in your pasta. To make it look more realistic, make your “eyeball” on the flat surface of the cheese.

When you push the olive into the cheese, the shiny outside part of the olive should face out.

Halloween food doesn’t have to be scary!

You can use silly ghosts and pumpkins to make it less spooky and more fun. As a child, my son was easily scared, so we went out of our way to do more silly Halloween decorations.

I used a big black serving bowl for an extra spooky presentation and hit up Dollar Tree for some props. I spread black netting on the table and placed fake plastic spiders, snakes, and a spooky skeleton hand around the bowl.

You could have Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper on the table for people who want it.

Once you know how to make the eyeballs, the ideas are endless. Eyeball pizzas, eyeballs in rice, eyeball soup – just to name a few!

If you make this, please follow and tag me on Instagram! I’d love to see your creations and will share them on my account. You can also check my highlights in my Instagram profile for a video of me making the eyeballs!

Serve this with:

Did you try this recipe?

Leave us a comment or rating below!
Tag and hashtag us on Instagram @nashvillemade #nashvillemadefood
Follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook
Sign up here to receive our weekly roundup in your inbox.

Halloween Food Creepy Pasta with Edible Eyeballs

Halloween Pasta with Edible Eyeballs

Creepy pasta with edible eyeballs is the perfect savory dish to balance out all the Halloween sweets!

Print This Recipe Pin This to Pinterest

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 10

Servings:

Equipment

Disposable straws

Ingredients

16 ounces squid ink linguini
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Mini mozzarella cheese balls
Large black olives

Instructions

Add the butter, olive oil, and seasonings to a small pan over medium low heat.
Let the butter mixture gently heat up while the pasta cooks.
When the pasta is done, strain it well and return it to the pot - off the heat.
Pour the butter mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into the pasts.
Toss the pasta with the garlic butter and set aside.

To make the eyeballs

Cut each mozzarella ball and olive in half. See notes for amounts.
Cut each paper straw into three pieces.
Use a straw to gently make a hole in each cheese half.
Use the opposite end to poke out a piece of black olive.
Carefully push the small piece of olive into the hole you made in the cheese.
Repeat this process until you have as many eyeballs as you want.

To assemble the dish

Transfer the buttered pasta to a serving bowl.
Tuck the eyeballs into the noodles and serve.

Notes

To make two eyeballs, you will need one mozzarella ball and 1/2 a black olive. So, to make eight eyes, you'll need four mozzarella balls and two black olives.

Creepy Halloween Pasta with Edible Eyeballs